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Friday 3rd July 2009

Top News
Investigators said Thursday that Air France 447 apparently didn't break up in flight but fell belly first into the equatorial Atlantic early on the morning of June 1. Thus far, 51 bodies of the 228 people aboard the Airbus 330 have been recovered and the search for additional victims ended last Friday. The search for the aircraft's flight data and cockpit voice recorders continues, but it too is expected to be suspended on July 10. “The plane was not destroyed while it was in flight,” Alain Bouillard, the chief of the investigation told reporters. “It seems to have hit the surface of the water in level attitude and with a strong vertical acceleration.
Jul 2, 2:36pm UTC

More News
The NTSB said this week it is investigating two runway incursions that occurred in June at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, while a controller-in-training was directing the airplanes.
Jul 1, 9:24pm UTC
Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo was on its way from Scaled Composites in Mojave to fly past the groundbreaking ceremony for Spaceport America in New Mexico on June 19 when the crew noted the failure of a speedbrake actuator as they descended toward the site.
Jul 1, 7:45pm UTC
Belite Aircraft, a new company based in Wichita, Kan., unveiled its prototype airplane Tuesday afternoon in the middle of the city's Old Town neighborhood.
Jul 1, 4:56pm UTC
Both the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and AOPA said this week that current proposals now in play in Washington are good news for general aviation.
Jun 30, 11:01pm UTC
Two active pilots were chatting on Twitter recently when they came up with an exciting idea: Why not go flying from the U.S. East Coast to the West Coast and back to promote general aviation?
Jul 1, 7:48pm UTC
A 28-year study of helicopter sightseeing accidents in Hawaii suggests that rules enacted in 1994 to reduce accidents did reduce the overall number by 47% but did nothing to address the main cause of accidents and may have inadvertently led to an increase in the deadliest type of accidents.
Jun 30, 11:27pm UTC
Viper Aircraft's new Viperjet LXR fanjet is a 375-KTAS, experimental two-place tandem aerobatic-capable personal jet with an 1100-nm range (with reserves) and room for 125 pounds of baggage -- and it's now available with a special endorsement from the FAA.
Jun 26, 11:15pm UTC
Investigators recently reported that the crew of Air France Flight 447, lost earlier this month with all aboard, may have been fed faulty air data, and Friday the NTSB announced that it is investigating "two recent incidents" in which A330 instruments may have malfunctioned.
Jun 26, 1:57am UTC
American Legend Aircraft announced Thursday that its Legend Cub, a modernized Piper J-3 Cub, could be had for as little as $2900 down and flown for $28 per hour when purchased through the LetsFly four-person joint-ownership program.
Jun 26, 2:02am UTC
 
Officials searching for an Yemenia Airways A310 that crashed near the archipelago of Comoros early Tuesday have found a 12-year-old girl who survived the accident.
Jun 30, 5:50am UTC
So far, start-up companies aiming to build very light jets have found the going tough (the now-defunct Eclipse Aviation and Adam Aircraft, for example), but that isn't stopping newer companies whose leaders believe they have a better idea.
Jul 1, 4:53pm UTC
The FAA said last week it has reached a "major milestone" in its efforts to help the aviation industry develop sustainable alternative fuels, and this week, the U.S. House exempted aircraft from a major bill that will impose greenhouse-gas emissions standards.
Jun 30, 11:04pm UTC
Jerry Comeaux, 69, the proprietor of Quality Aircraft Support in Greenville, S.C., pleaded no contest to fraudulently repairing aircraft parts without FAA credentials and is being forced to pay $403,000 to customers who paid more than $2.5 million for them.
Jul 1, 12:43am UTC
A new grass runway is now being built on land owned by the U.S. Forest Service in Montana, after four years of effort by recreational pilots. The strip, which is expected to be ready for next spring, will be 4,000 feet long.
Jul 1, 7:52pm UTC
The EASA Type Certificate covering the Eclipse 500 has been suspended as of June 12, 2009, striking a potential blow to the value of Eclipse Aviation's intellectual property assets that may soon be sold at auction.
Jun 26, 8:48pm UTC
An aircraft was unveiled Friday in Switzerland that aims to take off with one pilot aboard and fly day and night propelled only by solar energy, flying around the world without expending any fuel or expelling any pollution.
Jun 26, 8:49am UTC
AVweb has confirmed that former Cirrus Design CEO Alan Klapmeier is making a bid to acquire the rights to manufacture and sell the Vision SF 50 single-engine jet.
Jun 26, 1:00pm UTC
Celebrating a 37-year career in aviation and his 60th birthday, Tim Carter has set himself a goal of flying 60 aircraft in the year starting immediately after his Nov. 1, 2008, 60th birthday. (He's got about four months left.)
Jun 26, 3:01am UTC

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Features & Columns

Letter of the Week: Age 65 Rule

Regarding your article "APA Uses Continental 61 to Support Age 60 Rule": Scott Shankland's comments are biased and not founded in fact or reality. The referenced pilot could have just as easily been under age 60 and died of a heart attack. Many do. The causes related to heart attacks are tied to genetics and physical fitness, not age. Depending on the individual, one may live a very long life without any heart condition. It is not related to age.

In your article, you stated the FAA had changed the age 60 limit to age 65. Not true. Congress made the change after we lobbied them for more than a decade.

Also, I'd like to know why you interviewed a pro-age 60 pilot but failed to give equal coverage to pro-age 65 pilots?

Actually, we did not ask for age 65 as the new retirement age for airline pilots in the legislation. In fact, we asked for, and got written into the legislation, that pilots could retire at their individual social security retirement age. Thus, there would have been no fixed age for retirement — we believe a fixed age is wrong. However, Sen. Stevens came out of conference one day about four years ago and said he could not get consensus so he was changing the age limit to match the ICAO's standard of age 65. That's how we ended up with age 65 — not because we asked for it.

Stan Sutterfield

Click through to read the rest of this week's letters.

 
While it is fashionable in some circles to assert that society is falling apart and that if only we could return to the ways of yore, all would be well, in the world of Part 135 flying, it simply isn't true. The cowboy days of operators cutting every corner possible trying to make a buck while the FAA looked the other way killed way too many people.
Brainteasers Dig through the closet and dust off Mom's old E6B flight computer, because it's time to go old school with a cross-country planning quiz. (You'll get your GPS back later.)
Take the quiz.
Retirement? Now that the CEO is facing it, he recalls a prophetic flight with a retiring airline pilot in the jumpseat some twenty years ago.
One of the biggest reasons cylinders fail to go the distance is insufficient fuel flow at takeoff. Is yours set high enough?

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Podcasts and Video
Well, no one has ever accused Cirrus Aircraft Chairman of the Board Alan Klapmeier of backing down from a challenge and he's taken on a big one. Klapmeier announced last week that he's trying to buy the Vision SF 50 jet program from the company he and his brother Dale founded 25 years ago.In this podcast, Klapmeier lays out the history, the plan, and what he hopes will be the future of the project.
Surprisingly, it's not landings but take-offs that place the most stress on airplane tires. Aviation Safety magazine editor Jeb Burnside explores the reasons why with Steve Chlavin of Desser Tires.
Aviation Safety magazine editor Jeb Burnside talks power-off landings with Gary Hemphill, executive director of the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA), which conducts regional and national spot-landing contests.
EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh is coming up in just a few weeks — July 27 to August 2 — and this year's aviation celebration features lots of special visitors and exhibits, as well as extensive new upgrades to the show grounds. AVweb's Mary Grady talks with Dick Knapinski, EAA spokesman, for all the latest on the show, plus some important advice for pilots planning to fly in.
Cirrus Design co-founder and former CEO Alan Klapmeier dropped a bombshell on the annual Cirrus Migration in Duluth by announcing he wants to take over the SF 50 jet program through a separate company. But current CEO Brent Wouters says the company remains committed to seeing the project through, although it's willing to listen to Klapmeier's ideas. AVweb's Russ Niles spoke with Wouters about the proposal.
IFR magazine's Jeff Van West talks with Paul Devlin of WSI and Bob Dreisewerd of WxWorx about what makes cockpit NEXRAD different from what you see on an average web site. The datalink weather experts also discuss some of the shortcomings of cockpit weather and some tips for using it more effectively.
 
Aviation Consumer and AVweb report on the new Diamond DA42 L360, powered by a pair of Lycoming IO-360 engines.
The Yuneec E430, a 54hp two-seat Chinese electric airplane, gets put through its paces and undergoes its first flight.
Aviation Consumer's Jeff Van West takes a SeaRey LSX for a spin on the water. Testing this light sport amphibian turned out to be more fun than we were expecting — what a blast!
In this video, Aviation Consumer's Jeb Burnside tests three of the popular commercial tiedown products against a $3 doggie auger. The results proved surprising.
Thanks to seismic shifts in the news business, many local television outlets can no longer afford their own turbine-powered eye-in-the-sky. As a result, Robinson is doing a brisk business selling its R44-based ENG camera ship. AVweb visited Robinson in Torrance, California for a closer look.

FULL INDEX OF PODCASTS Find All Podcasts Of Interest

AVwebBiz: AVweb's Business Aviation Newsletter
Delivered every Wednesday morning, AVwebBiz focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the business aviation industry, making it a must-read.

Add AVwebBiz to your free subscriptions today by clicking here and choosing "Update E-mail Subscriptions."
Jan 1, 10:14pm UTC

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Who's Where
Millie Becker
Millie Becker is the new vice president for business development at First Aviation Services at Teterboro Airport. She was formerly a marketing executive at Landmark Aviation.

Jul 1, 8:07am UTC

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Lycoming-Powered Diamond DA42 Demo Flight

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QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Are there still too many "personal jets" coming to market?

Alan Klapmeier's dramatic announcement that he's trying to take over the Cirrus Vision SF 50 program has revived interest in the personal jet market. What's the future look like for little jets?


Share your Opinion »

PILOT RESOURCES

FBO OF THE WEEK

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to the city FBO at Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport (KSPA) in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

AVweb reader Jacquelyn Balish explains how the KSPA FBO staff went above and beyond to bring a smile to her face:

I fly with very young children by myself. This really can be challenging upon landing. I have a plane, kids, and luggage to deal with. The personnel at this airport jump right in to help. They take the children and luggage, [then] take kids to play while I secure my plane. They are Johnny on the spot. On one trip, the birds decided that my plane was a great toilet. [As soon as] I drove up, the plane was being washed for me at no charge!

P.S. The children love all the people at this airport.

Keep those nominations coming. For complete contest rules, click here.

AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBOs in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!

Nominate an FBO »

SHORT FINAL...

At the Charlottetown (CYYG) airport last summer, while doing my run-up in my 172, an air Canada flight had just finished copping their clearance when they saw an osprey fly by with a large flounder in its talons. They contacted the tower:

Dash-8:
"Charlottetown Tower, Air Canada 123."

Charlottetown Tower:
"Go ahead."

Dash-8:
"There's an osprey that just flew overhead carrying a fish!"

Charlottetown Tower: (without missing a beat) :
"Have him contact the tower."

This kind of made my day in this very friendly maritime town.

Neil Angus
Montreal, Québec
Canada

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